Why the Xbox One might actually be a legitimate business expense

One of the best things about writing about video games for a living is that you can legitimately write off gaming purchases as business expenses. Hardware, software, accessories—everything gets a decent discount from the tax man come April. Now, one high-profile member of the Microsoft community is arguing that any small business owner can get on the act by writing off an upcoming Xbox One purchase as a legitimate expense.

Don't laugh. At least, don't laugh too hard. As Microsoft Xbox MVP and "Director of Consumer Camp" Marques Lyon explains in a recent blog post on Microsoft's Small Business support pages, the $499 Xbox One could "rival even the most modest of video conferencing and networking platforms" thanks to its 1080p Kinect camera and multi-person Skype chats.

But wait, there's more. Since the Xbox One features Internet Explorer, it has access to all of Microsoft's Office Web Apps, which you can edit with "a Wi-Fi keyboard and mouse." The system can also access your SkyDrive files though Internet Explorer, letting you share "photos from recent travels or images showing details and diagrams" on the big HDTV screen.

Lyon goes on to imagine the ability to beam content from your tablet onto the Xbox One through SmartGlass. He sees other future applications that could take the Xbox One "from the 'break room' to the 'board room.'"

The idea of using a game console for more productive uses isn't exactly new, from the InfoGenius Productivity Pak line that tried to turn your original Game Boy into a basic PDA ("Pop in the calculator cartridge, I need to figure out the compound interest on this account!") to various video conferencing apps across existing consoles. But it sounds like the age of Web-based cloud applications combined with a robust Internet Explorer built in to the Xbox One from the start could really let the system stand in for the office computer in many basic work situations.

That said, you should definitely consult a tax professional before you try to claim that it's crucial to the operation of your small business.

Promoted Comments

Listen, Microsoft: If your xbox is such a great deal for business, why don't you yank out 25% of the processing power and build a Xbox One based piece of hardware that is only for buisiness teleconferencing and access to Office 365? Apparently, Cisco and all other telecon companies are raking business over the coals. If your box is such a great deal for business, fill that need with a box built for business with the required security logins and everything else business needs. Call it the Xbox Business Edition.

"Please, for the love of god, pre-order one. We're begging you. You there, in the suit. You could use an Xbox One, right? I mean... it runs Windows 8. Kind of. You could use Office 365! And... and... Kinect for Excel is going to be awesome.

Actually this would be awesome. Would be a lot easier to convince the boss to buy one.. and then also be a nice "break/time off" thing to do at lunch or something to get your mind off work for a little bit.

He has a point on the video conferencing. It probably best any of Cisco's conferncing stuff on pricing by a fair amount.

Yeah, but only if all the people you use it to vid-conf with are also using it, or Skype.

I've seen this sort of "this would be great for all those peons in small business" crap for years and it's stupid every time. I'm an independent IT guy with hundreds of clients, most of whom are small businesses. I have 1 (yes, ONE) that has any interest in video conferencing, let alone a need for it. Small business isn't conducted the way large business is and thus has different needs, albeit with some overlap. Too many folks in IT don't recognize this and think if they can push a solution "big business" uses, it'll make a small business big. Too many small business folks think the same thing but in my 11+ years doing what I do independently, I've seen most ofd the "I am small but wanna be big" guys die off while the "I'm OK with being small" guys keep making enough money for their needs.

Yeah I can totally see businesses jumping all over themselves to use a video conferencing center that blasts Doritos ads at them at startup. "Hey, is that a video game console you're conducting the merger meeting on? " does not scream professionalism either.

If this is true, why doesn't Microsoft just make a Kinnect-based video conferencing device. Then we wouldn't have to worry about people sneaking into boardroom to play games, or maybe borrowing it for the weekend.

Yeah I can totally see businesses jumping all over themselves to use a video conferencing center that blasts Doritos ads at them at startup. "Hey, is that a video game console you're conducting the merger meeting on? " does not scream professionalism either.

gotta love that ol' corporate tunnel vision. they look at the camera, and say, "it's videoconferencing hardware." they look at the dashboard, and say, "it's a discovery (advertising) platform." no one realizes those two things don't work well together.

it's like that old saying about three blind men feeling an elephant: one feels the leathery skin and says, "it's rhino!" another feels the tail and says, "it's an armadillo!"

I don't know how accurately people estimate and declare these things, but that's the rule anyway.

I'm sure Microsoft will make it really easy to see this data, right? It's easy to put a timer on stuff, so I'm sure Microsoft will come through and log all of this in a transparent way.

Yeah but the NSA might make it happen involuntarily.

On that note, I do not think that Microsoft has made a case to buy this over alternatives. What else could $500 get you in terms of similar capabilities business telecommunicatons hardware? And why should the end business want a Xbox over those alternatives? Until a solid case is made for that, we won't see much uptake.

I was actually considering doing this. We've been throwing around a video conferencing system here at work. only catch is I'm not getting a gold subscription for each location. gonna have to wait and see if that is required.

Unless they are planning on adding in full blown server hardware and software and allow inclusive support for said gear then they are blowning smoke up their own pipes.

Ballmer should not be heading up MIcrosoft.

Just read an article today about how he just now decided to reconsidate and resctructure management at Microsoft to reign in all of its various ilconceived projects and isolated products. My question is why has that taken them so long to figure out and somehow the psoting of this article (not ARS fault) seems to contradict the other article.

...While on the other hand, no one that I'm aware of has had a tax problem with claiming a PC as a business expense, even if it is the best game platform under heaven. You see...the advantages to PC ownership accrue endlessly...

Holy crap, I just thought about how much Lifesize costs these days, and he may be right. An Xbone with Skype would be way more cost-effective than LifeSize and handle the same job for smaller deployments.

By the bye, it's you've never used LifeSize, it's the bomb for teleconferencing. It's the first time I actually felt like I was in the room with people. I even used it to play D&D with an out of town friend.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.